OCR Text |
Show COLD STORAGE EGG INDUSTRY Infallible Rule Is for Farmer to Market Mar-ket Product as Soon as Possible After Laid. (By M. M. HASTINGS.) The cold storage egg industry Is a development of the last twenty-five years. Undoubtedly the industry as a whole has been of great benefit to both egg producer and egg consumer, and has tended toward the leveling of the price of eggs throughout the year and has resulted in a large increase in the fall and winter consumption. This means a larger total demand and a consequent increase in price. Owing to the fact that eggs are spoiled by hard freezing, they must be kept at a higher temperature than meat and butter. Temperatures of from 29 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit are used in cold storage of eggs. At such temperatures the eggs, if kept in moist air, become moldy or musty. To prevent pre-vent this, the air in a first-class storage stor-age room is kept moderately dry, which shrinks the eggs, though much more slowly than would occur with-, out storage. The growth of bacteria in cold storage is practically prevented. prevent-ed. If bacteria are in the eggs when Egg Room In a Large Eastern Cold-Storage Cold-Storage Plant. stored, the growth will. be checked, but activity will begin again when the eggs are warmed up. Speaking generally, the cold-storage egg, while not unwholesome, is in- ferior in flavor and strength of white to a fresh egg. The cold-storage egg can be very nearly duplicated in gross appearance and quality by allowing egsg to stand for three or four weeks in a dry room. Cold-storage eggs, when in case lots, can be told by the candler because of the uniform shrinkage, shrink-age, the presence of mold on cracked eggs, and perhaps, the occasional presence of certain kinds of spot rots peculiar to storage stock; but the absolute ab-solute detection of a single cold-storage cold-storage egg by candling is, so far as the writer knows, impossible. With the present prevailing custom of holding fall eggs without storage facilities, it is frequently true that eggs placed in cold storage in April are superior to current fall and early winter receipts. Cold-storage eggs are usually sold wholesale as cold-storage goods, but are retailed simply as "eggs." The fall eggs offered to the consumer con-sumer cover every imaginable variation varia-tion in quality, and the poorest ones sold may or may not be cold-storage tock. Occasional articles have been printed print-ed calling attention to the fact that the cold-storage men were reaping vast profits which rightfully belonged to the farmer, and advising the farmer to send his own eggs to the storage house or to preserve them by other means. As a matter of fact, the cold storage of eggs has not of late years been particularly profitable, there having hav-ing been severe losses during several seasons. Even were the profits of egg storing many times greater than they are, the above advice would still be unwise, for the storing, removing and selling of the farmer's individual case of eggs would eat up all possible profit. When eggs in the hands of large operators are properly preserved in cold storage, the best and most efficient effi-cient methods known are in reality at the farmer's service. Because of the severe competition that prevails in egg storing, the farmer is paid all the increase in price which the business will stand, A comparison of the summer sum-mer prices of eggs now with summer prices before days of cold storage will substantiate the truth of this statement. |